LET THIS PROCLAMATION SHOW THAT MAC RIO MINERALIZE SKINFINISH SHALL HENCEFORTH BE KNOWN AS THE OFFICIAL CHEEK POWDER OF PIZZA AND WINE WEDNESDAYS FOR THE REMAINDER OF SUMMER, SO HELP ME GAWD!

Oh, snap! Please pardon my overuse of caps. My pinky got stuck on the CAPS LOCK button (no, it didn’t), so I decided to just roll with it, since it pretty much also summarizes how I really feel about MAC Rio.

We fell in love! — when I wore it a couple days ago out to dinner with El Hub. That day it got hot in hurrr. I mean, it was like over 90 degrees, and I didn’t want to cook, so we went to this Italian place nearby called Tavola for dinner.

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Who knew that mixing wine, pizza and MAC Rio on a hot summer night could add up to something so cool?

The Neopolitana pizza from Tavola restaurant in Novato

I don’t know what laws of physics were involved, but there was something magical about biting into a hot slice, washing it down with a sip of chilled white wine and wearing MAC Rio… It electrified all of the pleasure pathways in my brain. Perhaps it was just a convergence of so many awesome things at once — carbs, cheese, wine and a bright, opalescent bronzed pink highlighter/blush. 🙂

Rio Mineralize Skinfinish, $30

Yeah, blush! You could wear Rio as a highlighter (tops of your cheekbones, down the bridge of your nose, your Cupid’s bow and chin), but my favorite way to wear it’s as a blush.

Say we bumped into each other at a MAC counter today and you said, “But, K-Dawg, all I want from a blush is that it’s easy like Sunday morning,” I’d steer you away from Tropical Taboo’s blushes, and point you in Rio’s direction. “Let’s do this, babes,” I’d tell you. “Trust.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with the Tropical Taboo blushes (I think they’re really beautiful). They just require a bit of work due to their level of pigment. Rio still has a healthy amount of bronzy pink color, so your cheeks will look flushed from a single layer, but it’s not so intense that you’ll find yourself spending valuable pool time buffing out the edges or worrying about applying too much.

If your pores are stressing out, tell them to relax! Rio’s shimmer is the bomb. Neither too glittery nor chunky, it’s just a very fine pink pearl. Your pores (those worry warts) will be fine, long as you don’t go too far overboard on the product, and perhaps layer a primer underneath. It’s not necessary, but it could help.

PRICE: $30AVAILABILITY: Available now at MAC counters, stores and onlineMAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A

Even more Rio!!

I feel a wave of childhood nostalgia sweep over me when I wear MAC Rio because the name reminds me think of Rio Pacheco from the Jem and the Holograms cartoon.

If you’re a teenager today, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. The quick backstory: Jem and the Holograms was a children’s cartoon about a young woman named Jerrica who had a magical pair of earrings that transformed her into a pink-haired rock-star alter ego named Jem…who was really a hologram.

AWESOME!

Yes, we ate this sh*t up back in the ’80s.

Rio Pacheco was the band’s manager, and he was also in a sordid love triangle with both Jem and Jerrica, who were technically the same person.

I suppose the more accurate description would have been to say that he was trapped between love parallel lines… Shout-out to 10th-grade geometry.

Ugh, Rio. He was very wishy-washy about choosing between Jem and Jerrica, and even though I was only 8 at the time, I wanted Jerrica to dump his @ss.

I mean, c’mon! I didn’t know much about the world, but I knew that even in the realm of cartoons, there had to be other guys with purple hair and mullets who were faithful to their girlfriends and didn’t pine after others on the down-low.

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My friends Cindy, Jen and I still, to this day, still talk about that show and about our deep resentment toward Rio Pacheco… It comes up at least once a year.

On that note, SHOWTIME SYNERGY! I’m off to Old Navy to look at tankinis.

Mmmmm…. pizza! Sorry, that’s as coherent as my over-heated brain can get right now. You’d think the pizza wouldn’t be so tempting since I just had dinner a little bit ago, but there’s always room for good pizza!

Um, this is why you’re the bomb, Karen. You bring together all things awesome: food, makeup, and the 80’s! I wish I had a dose of Showtime Synergy sometimes at work – it would really liven things up! This CRACKED me up so much: “there had to be other guys with purple hair and mullets who were faithful to their girlfriends and didnâ€™t pine after others on the down-low.” Words to live by! 🙂 Happy weekend, doll!